


Soulmates

by TwinVax



Series: Critrole Stories [25]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Cute, Family Fluff, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Other, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Team as Family, mighty nein soulmates, not going to put all their names down
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-06-10 10:57:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15290028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwinVax/pseuds/TwinVax
Summary: The platonic soul marks that make up the Mighty Nein's family.





	1. Chapter 1

Having a soulmate didn’t automatically mean it would be romantic, Caleb had learned early in his life. There were many books on the subject, ranging from explanation of the types of marks that could be left, when the marks appeared, to how it differed from platonic to romantic. 

Platonic marks were more numerous, while romantic ones, the ones that would be your lover for the rest of your life, were more rare. It was beautiful, if a bit sad, the books had noted on that. 

Caleb didn’t see how having close friends be your soulmates could have been sad, when he was younger. The sad thing he saw that that the romantic ones were much to plentiful in stories when they were the rarest, and that the platonic ones ignored. 

It was a waste, truly, to a good story. 

 

* * *

 

Soulmarks come in various types. Splashes of color on your skin, words in their native language, different colored eyes, sometimes shared pain, pictures of a person’s most favored trait they possess that tells a bit of them before you meet. 

Some appear when the soulmate is born, others when they become adults. The soul marks are as wide and varied as the species that exist in Exandria. 

losing a soul mark was not rare, and happened often, when love no longer existed or friends broke apart. It did require more than just an argument to disappear, but even a strong bond can break enough to show a scar. 

 

* * *

 

Yasha’s eyes are a different color. She doesn’t tell Molly if that means she has a soul mate where she is from, or if that’s just her eyes. He doesn’t care. 

Yasha has a dagger etched into her back, and a splash of bright purple that made a sleeve on her arm, making itself noticeable. Molly has her name in a different language he can’t read on his neck, the opposite side to where the tattoo is. 

They spend time together, when they know what it means, but they do not have any fear of what type it is.

 

* * *

 

The books written on soulmates admit that you can have more than one, and for some it’s difficult to tell the type for. That is bullshit, people find out in real life, as they can almost tell immediately upon meeting the type it will be for them. 

They can’t be wished away, and a person can try to remove it by hurting the spot where the mark exists, but it won’t ever work. Short of a truly horrific experience, the mark stays. 

 

* * *

 

Caleb’s marks were gone, when he was put in the asylum. He went so long without, he never noticed when a few appeared, hidden under his clothes. 

He only made notice of one, when Nott’s hand touched his arm, and his skin came away with the green of her hand print. 

She had no idea what it meant, but was less distressed when he told her, leaving his own orange mark on her shoulder. 

They escaped together after, and when they checked, both of them had a couple different soulmarks on their bodies. Nott had a sentence on her side, in a dark green, she couldn’t read. Another was just a name in purple. A picture of a blue pastry was on her wrist. Skeletal wings on the edge of one ear. A green splatter like spilled ink on her hand. 

His own were different, but still carried the same color as hers. 

Both of them stuck together, keeping each other alive as they grew close, becoming the family that the soul marks said they were. Protecting each other like only a soulmate could. 

 

* * *

 

Soul marks do not abide by what people want. They do not care how you might feel about a person when you first meet. They don’t care how you’re parents feel or what they want. No one can force a soul mark onto another person. There is no such magic as powerful as to do so. 

 

* * *

 

“Unpleasant one.” had been on Beau’s arm for two years, and she wanted to fucking deck whoever that was meant to be, while she kept as far as she could from the monks of her order. 

She knew she was, she didn’t need this asshole telling her that. Everyone else around her, and her own parents, had already made her know they felt that way about her. 

She didn’t have her own childhood, she felt bitter she couldn’t choose her own soulmates. She wouldn’t make it easy for this one. 

The other marks were more like colors than words, some a picture like a book or a sword. Those were more interesting. The weird chicken scratch sentence on her wrist was annoying. She liked the streak of white hair that slowly transitioned to black, that was in her hair. It was easily hidden if she needed it to be, and pretty rad. 

She could do without the words on her arm, she thought. 

 

* * *

 

Dying, the books said, makes the marks disappear. It had been seen, in the case of one adventuring group in Tal’dorai, that when they came back to life the marks only returned when their soulmate touched them or showed their love to the person once more. 

 

* * *

 

Mollymauk, he was sure, woke up without any marks besides the red eyes. He wasn’t really aware of much at the time. 

The circus, his people, Yasha. They marked him in their own ways. When he was aware, he saw their marks, and the marks that appeared from people he had yet to know. 

As far as he cared, they were his, and he embraced them same as he embraced what he chose to make the body feel like his own. 

Yasha’s mark kept a special place to him. He could almost believe it was also etched into his heart, how much he cared for her. 

 

* * *

 

Gods or monsters claiming a patron held no sway of a person’s soulmate. Sometimes though, a god or a creature that gave a patron their power would get a mark. 

The mark was harmless, as far as the words in the book said. They could not control you with them, stuck beyond the gate as they were. 

 

* * *

 

Jester had a beautifully ornate door colored into the skin of her chest, near her heart, a few musical notes directly beside him. Her mother and the Traveler. 

All of her marks were pictures of things that related to the person. It was great! She loved to look at all of the colors whenever she was bored. 

There was a weird blue stick on her ankle, and a pretty scary looking green potion sort of thing, overflowing and foaming, on her cheek. A cool looking sailor rope on her shoulder that mysteriously vanished and changed into an amazing looking sword. The eye thing that had a different color on each side of it. 

There was a kitty on her back! She could see it when she looked in the mirror, but otherwise it was hard to notice and touch. The last one was on her tummy, and it looked really cute. A shiny purple peacock, with rainbow butt feathers. 

 

* * *

 

Sometimes though, if your soulmate is powerful and not beyond the gate, they can alter and manipulate things somewhat. Be warned and weary of those with that sort of powerful benefactor. 

 

* * *

 

Fjord’s soul marks were all different colors, splashed somewhere on his body from his legs and arms to parts of his neck. He had no words, or pictures, or different color to his eyes or any sentence of name. 

All except for the large eye, watching from where it had appeared in the middle of his stomach, taking up most of the space on his torso. 

When he looked at his back, the eye was there as well. 

 

* * *

 

Soulmates tend to find each other, sometimes they do not, but the mark left behind is always a reminder that you have someone out there who can be your family. That there’s people who will love you and care for your well being. 

Find them. 

 

* * *

 

The Mighty Nein find their soulmates. They find who the marks belong to, and they become a family together. 

For better or worse. 


	2. Chapter 2

No one knows, until their soulmate dies, if the mark is one that will always be there or go away with the soul of the person. No one can tell what causes such things, but when a person dies, and the mark disappears, it is something the mark bearer feels with a deep seated pain in their own soul, screaming from the pain of it's loss. 

Sometimes, the soulmark bearer doesn't notice at all, and that is a worse fate then knowing. 

* * *

Yasha felt what she assumed was pain from where the ropes bound her in the cart, but when she looked there were no rope burns or marks on her skin there at all. Not even the purple mark left from Molly, two years before. 

She didn't understand how that could happen, but she felt it in her own soul as their connection broke, and she screamed. Her voice muffled and silenced by gag and by spell, she screamed at the loss of one of her soulmates. She at least knew a possible culprit, who Molly could possibly have been fighting to kill him, and she would hurt him back as hard as she was physically able, given the chance. 

Jester and Fjord sat in the corner of their cage, seeming not to have noticed the loss and the empty hole it left in it's wake. She didn't envy them, it would hurt them so much worse when they knew. 

Their soulmates were trying to save them, to the point one of them had died. They would surely blame themselves for that, if they had felt it. 

Yasha blames herself enough for the three of them. 


	3. yeza

It's unknown and rare, nearly unheard of, what happens to a soulmate when their lover dies but is reincarnated or resurrected. The spells are powerful, with not many having the energy to exert and force a life to return with that sort of power. No one has been able to observe such a thing, as easily as they could with everything else that has been discussed, and as such it is unknown what happens with these soulmates. 

If such a thing were to happen, it's possible it would react the same to a normal death, and neither would have a soulmate any longer. It's also entirely possible for their soulmark to return, letting the living party know of their soulmate return to the living. Or a third option that is unknown at the time could happen. Either way, the effects of a soulmark and these powerful spells have never been tested or observed, and perhaps never will be. 

* * *

 

Yeza barely made it back to the house with Luke, before he felt the pain over his heart as the mark left on his skin burned and disappeared. He didn't have the heart to tell his son why he'd yelped from the intense pain, nor why he'd cried a little while later once they both were lying on the apothecary floor. Veth was dead, and he didn't know how he'd explain that to Luke, a smart boy already traumatized and nearly starved. 

He'd have to tell him at some point, and he did with great strain, but he needed to feed him first. He needed to eat, and get comfortable back at home. There'd be time to talk of the loss of his soulmate later. 

Once he made sure that Luke had a substantial enough meal in front of him, he went into his bedroom and sat at the edge of his bed, letting himself cry and mourn on his own for a time. He only stopped when the pain returned, burning and intense, and he cried out loudly before the pain suddenly stopped, leaving him breathing heavily, heartbeat in his ears and tears still falling as he tried to focus on what just happened. 

He shook his head, wiping at his eyes for a moment, before he checked his skin. The mark that connected him to Veth had returned, but it was altered, the shape more faded then solid like it had been before, with the colors warped and green along the edges. It still looked like the mark from Veth, but at the same time it had been changed to not look the same as before. 

Yeza didn't understand, and didn't see Veth again for weeks after it came back, so he assumed the gods were mocking him, mocking her like the kids used to when they were young, and had to tell Luke that his mother was dead when he finally asked a few days into his waiting. 

* * *

 

Nott's soulmark for Yeza still existed, when she woke up, looking exactly the same as it had been before aside from a different color to be seen on her awful green skin. It still existed in the middle of her neck, where Yeza used to kiss it and make her tingle from the touch. It was too noticeable, to easy for people to see and look at her, something the goblins had made fun of her for after they'd fucking killed her. 

She covered herself in bandages, hiding the mark from view the same way she worked to hide herself, and tried not to think about it to much. She'd be able to look at it later, when everything was better again. 

 


End file.
